How To Setup the nc-env Virtual Machine

Introduction

While it is advised to run nc-env directly in your machine, we also provide a virtual machine image with a pre-configured nc-env environment.

It is a Ubuntu Desktop system, that means that you have a graphical interface in it.

Pre-requisites

A machine where you can run LXD daemon (Linux or macOS, as Windows only supports the LXD client), with at least 30 GB of free space.

Downloads

Download the virtual machine and the storage volume from:

https://chat.x51-hserver.com/s/aajB2E9PeKSAXqR

Configure your host

1. Install lxd. See the official documentation.
2. Initialize lxd. See the official documentation.

3. Create a storage pool called nc-env-vm-pool.

   If you have a free device or partition:

    $ lxc storage create nc-env-vm-pool zfs source=/dev/<name of device> zfs.pool_name=nc-env-vm-pool

   Otherwise:

    $ fallocate -l 30GB nc-env-vm-pool.disk
    ## Find the first unused device
    $ sudo losetup -f
    /dev/loop19
    $ sudo losetup /dev/loop19 nc-env-vm-pool.disk
    $ lxc storage create nc-env-vm-pool zfs source=/dev/loop19 zfs.pool_name=nc-env-vm-pool

4. Create the profile prf-nc-env-vm:

    $ lxc profile create nc-env-vm-prf
    $ lxc profile set nc-env-vm-prf boot.autostart false
    $ lxc profile set nc-env-vm-prf limits.memory 6GiB
    $ lxc profile set nc-env-vm-prf limits.cpu 4
    $ lxc profile device add nc-env-vm-prf root disk path=/ size=20GB pool=nc-env-vm-pool
    $ lxc profile device add nc-env-vm-prf eth0 nic nictype=bridged parent=lxdbr0 name=eth0

5. Import the virtual machine:

    $ lxc import nc-env-vm.tar.bz2

6. Import the volume called nc-env-vm-storage and attach it to the virtual machine:

    $ lxc storage volume import nc-env-vm-pool nc-env-vm-storage.tar.bz2
    $ lxc storage volume attach nc-env-vm-pool nc-env-vm-storage nc-env-vm

7. Start the virtual machine and open a graphical console into it:

    $ lxc start nc-env-vm
    $ lxc console --type vga nc-env-vm

   Important Virtual Machine Information

8. When connecting with the graphical console you will be using user ubuntu, with password ubuntu

9. An alternative way to connect to the virtual machine is via lxc exec nc-env-vm bash, in this case you will be connected with root
10. The VM comes with the latest nc-env stable version, available in the user home folder
11. When using a loop device for the storage pool you need to launch the following commands at each host machine reboot

$ sudo losetup /dev/loop19 nc-env-vm-pool.disk
$ sudo zpool import nc-env-vm-pool

You are now ready to create your first container-based Nextcloud environment!